This invention relates to a machine tool equipped with a workpiece station.
In an improved flexible machining system, a machine tool body is normally equipped with a workpiece station in which a plurality of pallets each fixedly holds a workpiece in such a manner that the workpieces can be conveyed by the pallets in series to a predetermined place and then transferred by a workpiece changer to the machine tool body. After it is machined, it is returned to its original position by means of the workpiece changer.
The conventional pallets are large and heavy so that they cannot be easily handled by an operator in particular when they are moving. Also, it is not easy to change an improper or wrong workpiece to a proper or correct workpiece in a specific pallet when it is moving. For such a reason, the pallets must stop for the workpiece exchange purpose. It decreases effectiveness.